


Who laughs in the end

by Mayonnaiser



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: (not really but it works anyway), Asphyxiation, Fix-It, Loki has a plan, M/M, Mentions of a previous sexual encounter, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), actual attempt at killing Loki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:34:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24716140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mayonnaiser/pseuds/Mayonnaiser
Summary: Loki is captured after Thanos has wiped out half of the Universe and has to be judged for helping him. Thor isn't particularly happy.
Relationships: Loki/Thor (Marvel)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	Who laughs in the end

**Author's Note:**

> hey! there might be mistakes so feel free to correct them if you see any. i hope you will like this interpretation of what could have happened, if Loki didn't die so silly in Infinity War.

The way Thor looks at him is much brighter than Loki has expected as if something has calmed his mind, and it’s quite intimidating to think that Thor has found peace in their situation. While others mourn and suffer, Odinson is completely under control, not what Loki has anticipated, when he was weighing the possible outcomes.

He is a traitor, a role he is so familiar with, he doesn’t find it offensive, when someone calls him that. He is Loki Odinson no more, not a war trophy or a toy, he is a son of a frost giant, and now Loki feels completely, utterly numb. His hands are in cuffs, he stands before Thor in all his glory — they both do, — and this nonchalant gaze Thor showers him in is nastily unfamiliar. For a second Loki remembers that time he was presented before Odin, who has sentenced him to be a prisoner for the rest of his days, and the thought makes him curl his lips.

“Is there something funny?” Thor asks, his voice is lighthearted. “Perhaps, a joke? Care to share with me?”

“I’d rather not,” Loki giggles and checks the chains on his hands, which won’t be easy to break.

“Shall we start, then?”

Odinson smiles, looking Loki straight in the eye, and comes closer, his pace is slow and steady. Here and now Loki is a little bit lost, not really understanding what he should wait for. It’s like for that short, insignificant to the gods amount of time something so preciously vital has changed, leaving Thor to be a forever changed man. Loki hates being left out, Loki hates it, when he doesn’t understand something, because in that case he doesn’t know how to break it.

“So,” Thor starts calmly, “why did you betray me? Again,” he adds the last part with a tad of bitterness, and Loki can’t hold his cruel smirk.

“I had my reasons, as usual,” Laufeyson sighs and shrugs. It is ambiguous but truthful.

“You always do,” he sounds so dismissive, it’s nearly offensive. “I’d like to hear a more precise answer as to why you left your people to die, choosing Thanos’ side?”

Finally, there’re some cracks in the image of a perfect, justful ruler. It lets Loki find his composure, being so comfortable with the role of a disappointment. It looks more like what he has expected, but still, not even close to what he is used to work with.

“I was a captive of his for a year,” the memories are flooding his mind, but he is not bothered by them. Loki had thought about this too much to be. “I know what he does with those, who displeases him.”

“This doesn’t answer my question,” Thor looks away for a second, thinking. Loki frowns, sincerely loathing that he has to explain himself.

“This was the only way to secure that we both are alive.”

He hates how weak it sounds, how obviously tied he is to Thor. Hates that he founds strength within himself to confess it out loud, hates how good it is to see Thor again. Loki looks at him with that childish adoration he thought he has grown out of. He was expecting Thor to be angry with him, to waste time explaining how stupid Odinson is, but here they are, and Loki is the only one, who feels like a dumb child.

“Was it?” the question is not meant to be answered, it’s obvious enough.

Thor hums, looks at his strong hands and then at Loki again, searching for the answers that Laufeyson would never give him. This is a dead end; they both are too stubborn to push the matter further just as they are with anything else. All they can do now is to wait until one of them gives up and admits that he was in the wrong. As if it ever happened.

“Loki, you are a traitor,” Thor says finally, words in his mouth are more like a blur, “will you deny that?”

He wants to, badly, but he won’t.

“It doesn’t matter, what I answer, does it?”

“Not really,” Thor agrees.

And then they laugh, the sound is almost ugly. It’s like a hysteria, but the last bastion of sanity at the same time. Like a last chance to change their decisions.

“That thing between us,” Odinson murmurs, “was it an act as well?”

The tenderness of touch, the love song of whispers. Even if Loki was tortured again, enslaved for years or anything else, he would never forget how Thor’s lips felt on his own, how hungry they were for each other the night after the prophecy was fulfilled. The heat of their bodies rubbing against each other, a competition of wills; one of them eventually lost it, gave in and took it wholeheartedly, and it doesn’t even matter who it was. Maybe, both of them at the same moment. 

Loki remembers Thor’s fingers traveling down his chest, right to the bottom of his stomach, squeezing and claiming as he would normally do. And he himself, so high on lust, moaning and biting his brother’s shiny with sweat muscles. The force Thor took him with, the hot breaths they shared in their mouths. He would snap fingers and wipe out half of the Universe himself, if it meant to feel what he felt that night for the rest of his days, and his smile falters, eyes leaving Thor’s face.

“Who knows.”

“I see,” the reaction is immediate. “Very well, I’ve heard enough,” Thor looks at Loki again with a small smile. “Loki, son of Odin,” he swallows, “I, Thor, son of Odin, King of Asgard, hereby sentence you to death.”

For a second Thor’s voice vibrates in the air, before the realization comes in, and Loki’s first reflex is to smile and laugh.

“What?” he asks, thinking that this is some misunderstanding.

“Since you are the son of Allfather,” Odinson continues, “despite of all your sins, you should have a chance to reach Valhalla.”

And at that, Loki finally understands that this is not a joke. Ironically, it makes him laugh even more.

“And how do you plan to do this?” his voice doesn’t show his nervousness. “Will you kill me yourself?”

“I will, indeed. Do you remember the rules?”

“The rules how to die?” Loki smiles. “It doesn’t get any better.”

“While I am killing you, you will have to endure it, no whining, no tears, no cries for help. If you die honorably, without embarrassing yourself, you will be accepted.”

“Don’t you think they won’t want me there?”

There is a moment of complete silence.

“They will have no other choice. Are you ready, brother?”

“I guess, the phrase ‘from the moment I was born’ is quite literal in my case,” Laufeyson laughs at his own words, getting the picture together.

This is not a test, Thor’s being serious. Loki closes his eyes, trying to calm himself down, but all he feels is fear of an inevitable death. The laughter dies, when Thor closes his hands on Loki’s throat.

“Last words?” he asks, and Laufeyson realizes that he is shaking. So, this is the end, the actual, real dead end for him. Maybe he made a mistake that day, swearing his undying loyalty to Thanos, maybe he should’ve died there as a hero. Maybe Thor would love him still this way.

“I will not grant you pleasure of hearing them,” Loki says and breathes in for the last time.

Thor strangles Loki with his bare hands, pushing and pressuring more and more with each second. The look on his face is of the pure determination, and Loki keeps his cuffed hands down, his eyes losing their vision. He will not die from the loss of air, but he will by his brother’s own hands cracking his neck. In his last moments Loki forgets about Thanos, about his hatred for Odin, about Frigga’s loving words and Thor’s body on his own. The death is here, and it’s taking him in the form of a man he fell in love with.

Is there a crueler torture than this? Chitauri is nothing compared to what Loki feels now.

With the last bits of his mind he keeps his gasps behind a closed mouth and his eyes wide open, ready for a release of death. Hoping, that Thor words were true. That Valhalla would accept even such a rotten seed as Loki is. But that’s very romantic, really, because in reality he doesn’t think anymore, he’s just a nearly lifeless body in strong hands. And Loki will die like he lived, in a shadow of Thor.

~

When Loki opens his eyes, he is not sure that he’s in Valhalla. The surface he’s lying on is cold and his hands are still in cuffs. The man near him squats, so he could see Laufeyson’s face.

“Awake already? You are much stronger than I thought,” Thor. Loki tries to look at him, his eyes are failing to focus. “Congratulations.”

Loki’s confusion must be visible, because Thor laughs, freeing him from the cuffs and standing up. He walks away, but his voice rings in Loki’s ears.

“If I didn’t stop, you would be dead already. You would be in Valhalla,” Odinson whispers, and Loki wants to believe there is a little bit of awe in his voice. “But I clearly can’t let this happen, you can’t be forgiven that easy,” he stops for a second, “I can’t forgive you that easy.”

It’s hard, but Loki still manages to whimper a broken ‘Thor’ with his lips.

“So you will live and pay for all your actions.”

Loki whimpers, again.

“Because I am a shit king, fortunately for you.”

And even if his body is shaking and he can’t budge, a smile on his lips is definite, because he knew all along that Thor would never be strong enough for this.


End file.
